I am a consultant and the author of 24 books on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the semantic web. My favorite languages are Java, Haskell, Python, Common Lisp, and Ruby.

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Friday, November 12, 2004

My free advice to Steve Jobs: movie equivalent for iTunes music store

I am pleased with Apple for many reasons (*), so, Steve, this advice is free! Current online movie services are lame for a few reasons:

They don't run on Macs!

DRM limits movie watching to 24 hours

So, following up deals with the music industry to allow Apple's music store (which I really enjoy, BTW), negotiate with the movie industry and support a movie store site that:

Works with Macs!

With DRM that allows watching a downloaded movie for a whole week

Support two pricing structures: 99 cents for a low resolution movie (perhaps 450x250 pixels) and $2.50 for a higher resolution movie (perhaps 800x500 pixels). Support full screen mode with interpolation.

(*) I wrote the free chess program distributed with very early Apple IIs and received fun notoriety for that. I am a slightly wealthier man today because I wrote a commercial Mac application in 1984. The last batch of Apple stock that I bought has gone from $15 to $55 per share. Thanks Apple!